The ACEs is a chance for channel praise and thanks

The butterflies are starting to swirl round the stomach and the palms are getting sweaty as the countdown to tonight's MicroScope Awards for Channel Excellence begins.

Standing up and doing a speech is an honour, providing me with the chance to speak to the industry I cover day-to-day, but it is also a brief opportunity to sum up a year's activity.

The word that you will hear hopefully from more than just my lips tonight will be the R word - recovery. Last year was tough but it was not as apocalyptic as some had feared and now the desire is to concentrate on looking forwards and upwards.

To lift a theme from my speech tonight there are various reasons why the channel came out of the other side of the worst recession for 60 years largely intact but primarily among them is that businesses in the IT sector are well run and practice what they preach using technology to save costs and drive efficiency.

The rest of the world has also grasped that idea and unlike the fallow years that followed the dot.com boom it is to technology that most people have turned for answers and it is to technology the answers lie and will continue to be found.

Tonight is very special for many many reasons but chief among them for me is to be able to praise the channel for its hard work and thank each and every one of you for making this such a vibrant and dynamic industry to write about and participate in.

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